Perhaps having little or no memory of the ''good'' colonizer, many young Filipinos will have no cause to celebrate Philippine-American Friendship Day today.

But the people of Cagayan province do and each year on America's Fourth of July--at one time observed here as Philippine Independence Day--they remember their ''beloved Americans.''

These individual Americans are remembered for their role in binding Cagayanos and foreigners together toward a common goal--the development of the province.

Among them is the late Dr. John H. Manning Butler who wrote the province's anthem.

Butler, the only black in the remarkable batch of 199 American teachers--the so-called Thomasites--who came to the Philippines in 1902, was one of the best-loved education superintendents of Cagayan.

Old-time residents here said Butler employed the finest and most efficient teaching methods in educating Cagayanos.

Butler's legacy to Cagayan, the Cagayan Song, has been translated into Ibanag, Ilocano and Tagalog. It is sung everyday in schools, seminars, and civic and religious assemblies by Cagayanos here and abroad.